THE RELATION OF THE SEXES TO GOVERNMENT. 723 



acquired characters are in small proportion to inherited ones. In 

 all influence that depends on physical conditions, that of parents 

 immensely preponderates over that of all others. Hence, in the 

 present paper the relations of parents will be considered rather 

 than those of other persons. For the good of the race, the parent 

 must have the first place in the mind of the legislator, and all 

 other persons must occupy a position of subordinate importance. 



In comparing male and female minds we should take theni at 

 their best and not at their worst. We should take real livers and 

 not pretenders ; that is, persons who exercise their higher facul- 

 ties, or who live up to their capacities. Very many men and 

 women waste their higher faculties by disuse, but the married are 

 less apt to live this aimless life than the unmarried. As there are 

 persons who deny matters of ordinary observation, the actual dif- 

 ferences of the minds of the sexes in general may be very briefly 

 enumerated. We find in man a greater capacity for rational pro- 

 cesses, a capacity which is not always exercised to its full. We 

 find in men a greater capacity for endurance of the activity of the 

 rational faculty. We find in men a greater capacity for work in 

 those departments of intelligence which require mechanical skill 

 of a high order. In the aesthetic department, we find incapacity 

 more general than in women, certainly in the department of the 

 aesthetics of the person. In woman we find that the deficiency of 

 endurance of the rational faculty is associated with a general inca- 

 pacity for mental strain, and, as her emotional nature is stronger, 

 that strain is more severe than it is in man under similar circum- 

 stances. Hence the easy breakdown under stress, which is prob- 

 ably the most distinctive feature of the female mind. ' This pe- 

 culiarity, when pronounced, becomes the hysterical temperament. 

 But in all departments of mental action that depend on affection 

 or emotion for their excellence, woman is the superior of man ; in 

 those departments where affection should not enter, she is his in- 

 ferior. I think that most of the peculiarities of mind of the sexes 

 may be traced to these first principles. The origin of these lead- 

 ing differences is not difiicult to trace to the different functions of 

 the sexes in the family relation, emphasized by repetition through- 

 out the long ages of vertebrate, mammalian, and human history. 

 Beginning with the maternal instinct, woman has become, by 

 constant exercise, a being of affections. Her long protection by 

 the male has reduced her capacity for defense ; while the mastery 

 by him has accustomed her to yielding, and to the use of meth- 

 ods of accomplishing her desires other than force. There are ap- 

 parent exceptions to these definitions, but they are generally 

 more apparent than real. For one of the characteristics of the 

 female of man, acquired by long practice, is a capacity for keep- 

 ing up the appearance of possessing qualities in which she is 



